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I hope you had a great Easter weekend! We sure did. We had more than our fair share of egg hunts and the kids were begging for more. Imagine that! We had a visit from the bunny and he left some pretty great stuff for little man. He's obsessed with his new camera and his nesting dolls. Which makes the bunny very, very happy. Easter day, though a lot of fun, was on and off a day of discipline for Elliott. Just because sugar has replaced every ounce of blood in your body, doesn't give you an excuse to misbehave. Or does it? For Elliott's outfit, I was determined to find some mint green pants to go with the grey shirt. You would be surprised how hard it is to find mint pants that will work for a little boy. I finally found the perfect ones here, and we love them. A lot. We ended the day in a sugar coma and with tears that Easter can't be every day. Now back to real-life!

Ready for a printable? Of course you are! We have been having a lot of fun coloring these. They are the perfect thing to print off and get your kids pumped for Easter! You can download the eggs here and the bunny here. Print off a bunch because trust me, your kids will be addicted. Elliott has been asking me to print off more and more for him to color. He has even started cutting out the eggs and hiding them in plastic eggs for us to find. Man I love that kid. He named the rabbit Leo and added the bow tie, which of course I love and wish I had thought to add when I designed it. The point is, your littles will amaze you when you let them loose to create. And that is the best. Happy coloring!

This year for Easter we are going to make things a little more fun and special than we have in the past at our house. I thought it would be fun to make Easter dinner more like a mini-party. These egg straws will be fun for the kids (and adults) to enjoy. You could even make them plain and let the kids decorate their own! They are super easy to make and the best thing about them is they are totally customizable. Do whatever you want with them! Want to make some of your own? Of course you do. Here's how.

I found some paper mache eggs at the craft store for next to nothing and just drilled a hole in the top and the bottom. You will want to pick a drill bit that is barely bigger than your straw so it will fit snuggly. Also, when you drill, start out very slowly so you get a nice clean hole.

Next, paint! I went with white, but you could do any color combo you want! Some nice pastels perhaps? So very eastery.

I thought it would be cute and fun for the kids to have their names on them. This is also a great way of keeping track of your drink! I used a paint marker to ensure the names were clear. Plus, paint pens are so easy to use. Next I decorated the eggs with dots and dashes. Again, you can do whatever you want! Keep them plain, go for stripes, gold leaf them, you get the idea. And that's it! You are ready to party Easter style.

Can you believe Easter will be here in just a few weeks? Crazy! I wanted to make something really simple to make your Easter special. If you don't do big elaborate baskets (I don't blame you) then these are perfect for filling with a few eggs and some candy. They are also great for gifting to friends or neighbors. We are planning on filling these with special treats for Elliott and his cousins, as a little surprise for Easter. I found the little buckets in one of my favorite places on earth. The Target dollar isle! But you could use the stickers for anything. Paper bags, baskets, buckets, you name it. You can download the sticker designs here. Just download, print them out onto sticker paper and cut them out. If you want to get real crafty, you can have your little ones color the images. Fancy, right? No matter what you use the stickers for, I am pretty sure your little ones will love them. So do them a solid and print them out, would ya?

It's officially Spring and boy are we happy about it. What better way to welcome Spring than with a fun DIY? I am a little bit obsessed with this one. It was so fun to make with Elliott, he has been asking to make more! You can download the cloud print here and print it out at your local staples for under $2. It prints out to 18x24 inches. Or you can make your own cloud easily with a sharpie marker. Whatever floats your boat! You can see the full tutorial we did over here, and if you make one of your own, I would love to see it!

I am pretty sure it's a universal thing that kids slip and slide with socks on hard floors. Just the other day Elliott slipped and hit his head. So I thought I would make some anti-slip socks to help prevent any future head injuries. They are really, really easy to make and you can get creative with the designs you put on the bottom. I am planning on making some more and putting little dashes on the bottom. How are these anti-slip? Well, there's this little product called Plasti dip. It's found at the hardware store for about $6 and is used primarily for adding grip to tools, etc. It's flexible, washable and grippy so I thought it would work great. And wouldn't you know it, it does! They feel just like the grippy socks you buy at the store, but better because you made them! Let's get started, shall we?

To make your own you will need:

Socks

Plasti Dip

Pencil with eraser

Cardboard

Tape

Paint brush

Put a piece of cardboard about the same size as the sock inside the sock to keep the plasti dip from seeping through. To make the polka dot pattern, just dip the pencil eraser into a little bit of the plasti dip and stamp away! You will want to do at least five or six coats, but don't worry. This stuff dries really quickly. It took me a total of three minutes to make one pair. To make the striped grips, use some tape to mark off your stripes and paint the plasti dip on. Again, you will want several coats. Once it's dry, remove the cardboard and tape and you're done!

I have the hardest time convincing Elliott that ties are not his enemy. Then it occurred to me to make the tie a little more fun with a tie tac! He loves shapes so I thought this would be perfect. You could just as easily make one using their first initial which any kid would love. It's super easy and you can make a bunch of them in no time. I might make an egg shaped one for Easter. Fun, right? I think it might work! If you want to see the full tutorial to make your own, head on over to Handmade Charlotte to check it out.

Today is national unplugged day so we are getting a bit creative around here. Unplugged day is exactly what it sounds like. A day of no iPads, TVs, movies, video games, etc. Of course unplugged day had to fall on a no preschool day. Ha! So far this morning we have danced, read books and played with pipe cleaners. I introduced Elliott to them yesterday after this project and he has been hooked! So far he has made letters, rockets infested with shark-fish aliens and bracelets for his friends. In preparation for today, I came up with a list of things to do that don't involve Elliott and any type of screen. So we are heading out to run some errands, go to the park to burn some energy then we are going to a playdate and then dinner with friends. Sounds do-able, right? This is our first time participating in national unplugged day and I have to say, so far so good! I just might want to make it a more regular thing than once per year. We'll see. Are you going unplugged today? What are you doing with your littles to keep them occupied? I'd love to hear!

Are you ready for some St. Patrick's day fun? We have a lot of projects coming up over the next two weeks to make your kid's St. Patty's day extra awesome. First up, rainbow cupcake toppers! These are so easy to make and the kids are guaranteed to love them because, well, they are gum-balls on top of cupcakes. What's not to love? These would be awesome to have at a kids St. Patrick's day party. Or even just for your own family to make the day extra festive. Want to make your own? Here's how!

To make them, you'll need some pipe cleaners, some gum-balls and a needle or an awl.

First, poke some holes in each gum-ball, going all the way through.

Then string the gum-balls onto a pipe cleaner and trim the pipe cleaner. You want there to be enough on the ends to stick into the cupcake to hold it in place. And that's it! Super easy, right?

Our friends Michelle and Steve from Twig are the husband and wife duo behind the adorable and brilliant wooden toy cameras. This past weekend they hosted an event to launch their new cameras which was amazing. New colors, new styles and the clever viewfinder so the kids can actually see what they are "photographing"! Elliott fell instantly head over heels for the new Instamatic camera. It's inspired by the 60's Kodak camera and it even comes with a color-changing viewfinder. Awesome, right? Elliott has no idea yet, but the Easter bunny will be bringing him one in his basket this year. At the event there were creative stations for the kids to work on a couple of different projects. There was tree stump rubbings, stamping and drawing, cardboard camera coloring and building and we even got a bare wooden camera from Twig to paint ourselves. Elliott chose the color and painted most of it and I might have micromanaged...just a little. All of the kids had a blast going from station to station working on their projects and showing off their skills. Twig also has some incredible children's chairs of which we are huge fans. It was such a fun launch event and we are so excited to have some fun with our new cameras! Thanks, Michelle and Steve for a seriously awesome time.